2250 GMT: All-is-Well Alert (Overseas Edition). Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi has assured a conference, "All Iranians who live outside of the country are not in the opposition. The number of Iranian expatriates who are opponents of the system is limited."

Moslehi said, however, that there is still work to be done: "Foreign intelligence agencies have provided facilities and equipment to [the opponents] to help them make their voices widely heard."

Last week Glenn Greenwald wrote this article for Salon. On Tuesday, Bradley Manning's lawyer David Coombs wrote, "The defense has raised the conditions of confinement...on multiple occasions with the Quantico confinement facility and the Army Staff Judge Advocate’s (SJA) Office assigned to handle this case. Our efforts, unfortunately, have not resulted any in positive results."

On Wednesday, the office of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, confirmed that the case is being investigated.

On Thursday, Venezuela’s fledgling student movement held mass protests in Caracas. Amidst the demonstrations, the real story was muffled: the Bolivarian Revolution usurped some more power from the country’s people.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez managed to breeze some more "reforms" through the Congress, controlled by his supporters, which now gives him power to rule by decree for 18 months. The sudden need? From 4 January, the Congress will have a substantial number of opposition members who won’t allow quick passage of Chavez's socialist reforms.

On Friday, the UN General Assembly voted to hold a summit for the 10th anniversary of the World Conference Against Racism, also known as the Durban Conference.

In 2001, the declaration from Durban singled out Israel for criticism, likening Zionism to racism and referring to "the plight of the Palestinians." In April 2009, there was a follow-up conference, but the US, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, and Australia did not participate. The conference report had no language accusing Israel of racism and no reference to the recent Gaza War.

Washington continues its opposition to any gathering. US Ambassador Susan Rice said Washington voted against Friday's resolution "because the Durban declaration process has included ugly displays of intolerance and anti-Semitism, and we do not want to see that commemorated".

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Danny Postel and Nader Hashemi write for The Fellowship of Reconciliation:

We are peace activists and supporters of the Green movement in Iran. We adamantly oppose any military attack on Iran, and we stand in solidarity with the democratic struggle in Iran. We see these positions as inextricably linked, as forming a consistent position based on the principles of peace, social justice, and human rights. But there’s a lot of confusion about this in the peace movement. We offer the following food for thought in hopes of clarifying some of the issues at hand and encouraging peace activists to learn more about the Green movement.